Chris Gayle and West Indies pour a barrage of sixes, break records in Barbados against England

In the first ODI of the 5-match series in Barbados, West Indies had to face a crushing defeat against England despite putting up a score of 360 on the board. The victory was a major statement of intent from the English team, who are heading into the upcoming World Cup as the clear favourites due to the depth of their batting unit. Despite the loss, West Indies managed to get their names into the record books. The team managed to break two big records when it comes to sixes. One of the two records belonged to the team, while the other, had Chris Gayle’s name written on it.

Gayle becomes the King of Sixes

Chris Gayle who will retire from the ODI format after the 2019 World Cup was in exceptional form in the first match of the series. Starting off slowly, Gayle took his time to get his eye in and then started to deliver some monstrous hits for which he is so well known for. He scored 135 runs off 129 deliveries in his innings, which only had 3 fours, but a mammoth 12 sixes. With these 12 sixes, he became the batsman with the most sixes in international cricket.

Breaks Shahid Afridi’s record

Before the start of the match, both Gayle and Afridi were tied on 476 sixes in international cricket. But it did not take long for the Jamaican to have the record all for himself as a devastating hit off Moeen Ali’s delivery meant that he created history. By the time the innings was done, Gayle had 488 international sixes to his name and comfortably sat on top of the perch.

West Indies team hits most sixes in a match

When it came to sixes, Gayle was ably supported by his team. Apart from him, six other batsmen hit the ball out of the park. The team hit 23 sixes in the match which was one more than the 22 which the New Zealand team hit in 2013. Along with Gayle’s 12 sixes, Darren Bravo with 4, Ashley Nurse with 3, John Campbell, Shimron Hetmyer and Shai Hope with 1 all helped the team get their name in the record books.